SHOT Show has come and gone. It’s a heckuva week in Las Vegas. While some go for fun, writers like me put our noses to the ground and grind. We search through 13.9 miles of aisles to try and find the best guns and gear.
Today, we are focusing on the latter. What was the best gear of SHOT Show 2024?
I might be one man with a slight bias, but I think I found ten solid options coming into 2024 that would arm you well.
So, keep reading!
Best Gear of SHOT Show 2024
1. Meprolight M22
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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25% off all OAKLEY products - OAKLEY25
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Meprolight is an optics company that often gets slept on but produces some neat stuff. This includes the new Meprolight M22.
This red dot sight is a battery-free, self-adjusting design powered by fiber optics during the day and Swiss tritium vials at night.
It’s super compact but still packs a large window that’s easy to see through and use. The dot can mix with night vision and magnifiers easily and comes with a few different reticle styles. This includes a large triangle that impressed me.
The view through the lens was quite clear, and the optic was super lightweight. The lack of electronics likely allowed them to trim weight and size easily. Sensors placed in the top detect light and tell the reticle to auto-adjust. I had fun covering them in shadow and seeing the reticle adjust quickly and easily.
I completely covered the sensors with my hand and watched it dim to nothing. The SHOT Show floor was too bright to see the optic perform with the Tritium vials, but the adjustments were instant.
It’s not entirely a new idea, but this is one of the first auto-adjusting, battery-free optics I’ve seen built to ruggedized standards.
2. Farrow Tech CP33 Conversion
I’ve always thought the CP33 was cool but never had much reason to buy one. At the end of the day, it was just a really big .22 LR pistol, right?
It wasn’t until I saw the Farrow Tech CP33 Kit that drove me to want one. This kit from Farrow Tech takes you an inexpensive .22 LR space pistol and gives it an MP7 appearance.
A large shell is draped around the gun to give up the modern MP7 look-alike appearance. It’s complete with M-LOK rails and a scope rail. It looks stellar and even includes the Farrow tech collapsing brace design. I get that it’s just a dress-up kit, but I can’t help but be amused and impressed by it.
Sure, it’s a Golf Cart trying to look like a Ferrari in terms of the performance of a .22LR versus the 4.6x30mm cartridge, but man, it’s a lot cheaper to drive a golf cart than a Ferrari. The kit still allows the use of a suppressor and ultimately makes a fun gun more fun, and who can hate that?
The FT7 kit is available now from Farrow Tech.
3. Dry Fire Mag + Laser Ammo Conversion
I love the Mantis Blackbeard for my AR-15. It’s upped my training a ton, and it’s a ton of fun. With that in mind, I wanted something similar for my pistol, but anything close has always been quite expensive and complicated…until now.
Dry Fire Mag teamed up with Laser Ammo to produce a Smart Dry Fire Mag that wireless transmits to a Laser Ammo Cartridge. This allows you to dry fire your striker-fired pistol without constantly reworking the slide.
It’s as close to semi-auto as dry fire gets without a complicated system.
This allows you to train double taps, multiple shots, and speed shooting. The system worked perfectly at range day, and I had a blast shooting a multitude of targets. It’s super easy to use and highly reliable.
The Dry Fire Mag and Laser Ammo setup seems to be a match made in heaven. Initial production will be limited to the Glock and Sig Sauer P320 series handguns.
Beyond that, I hope to see a P365 variant.
For more on laser targets and ammo, check out our guide to the Best Laser Training Aids.
4. Holosun DPS-TH
Who would have thought we would have thermal technology in a handgun-sized optic? Or at least close to a handgun-sized optic?
Holosun revealed the DPS this year, and I was blown away. To be fair, the pistol-sized optic is only one small part of the system.
The 2-piece system consists of the enclosed emitter optic but also a device that looks like a weapon light. This is the thermal sensor and would be mounted to your handgun’s rail. The sensor wirelessly transmits the data to the optic to provide the thermal overlay on the handgun.
The model at SHOT was more or less a late-stage prototype, so it’s not a complete product. However, the technology and idea seem awesome.
It was fun to fool with and see people via thermal signature as they walked around the show. The battery life is short, but it’s something being addressed.
While it can work on a handgun, I see it as a great option for a PDW-sized gun or a micro-sized braced pistol. It’s a tad bulky overall, but still the smallest thermal optic I’ve ever seen. Things like effective range aren’t set in stone yet, either.
It did seem to be easy to use and very clear in its design. The rep at Holosun predicted a mid-2025 launch, so they have time to work out the bugs.
5. SilencerCo Velos LBPK
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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25% off all OAKLEY products - OAKLEY25
Copied! Visit Merchant
If you shoot suppressors often, you know that gas blowback is downright painful. It can get in your eyes and mouth and is extremely uncomfortable.
Several companies have sought to reduce and eliminate this problem, and SilencerCo did so with the LBP suppressor or Low Back Pressure.
This year, they showed the Velos LBPK. It’s the same Low Back Pressure design but in a shrunken, more compact can.
The original Velos LBP was great, but if you wanted something for close quarters and home defense, it might feel a bit long.
This dedicated 5.56 model utilizes a 3D-printed Inconel 625 core welded to a 17-4 stainless steel front and rear module. The suppressor is full-auto rated and reportedly one of the toughest they’ve ever made. The Velos LBPK is only 4.76 inches, weighing 12.4 ounces in total.
It’s short, light and fun. The back pressure is knocked down a notch for comfort, and I imagine the addition of the SilencerCo gas-busting charging handle will reduce it even more.
This would be a great combo for any AR shooter. If you get the newest Zenith ZF-56, you might certainly need it because when suppressed, it had some serious gas blowback.
6. Woox Furiousa
I love Woox furniture. They’ve found a way to cross the looks of wood with the modern modularity of firearm furniture.
My Mossberg Shockwave currently sports a set of Woox Furniture, which was why I needed to swoop in and check them out at SHOT. There, I came across the Woox Furiousa.
The Furiousa is a PRS Competition Chassis system designed to make your rifle a top performer and a good looker. Like most Woox designs, they’ve implemented a dash of wood with modern features.
Up front, this means you get a beautiful wood handguard with a number of metal-reinforced M-LOK slots for accessories, including bipods. Of course, it still free-floats the barrel. In the rear, we get a wood pistol grip that explodes into a modern metal design.
Here, we see an adjustable cheek rest, an adjustable length of pull, and more. It’s a neat design that gives that stellar wood look that’s mated to effective design.
I love the stuff Woox puts out, and if I shot PRS, I’d snap a Furiousa.
7. Antimatter Industries Scope Switch Electronic
The Scope Switch was a really neat idea. Let’s add a lever to your rail that connects to your scope and allows you to adjust the magnification by simply sliding it forward or decreasing it by sliding it backward. It was a neat design and one that the market liked.
Much like a Marvel movie, it seemed like less than a year later, we got a sequel. This time, it’s electric. Now, instead of manually moving a lever back and forth, you press a + or a – button, and the magnification increases or decreases on demand.
The increase is smooth and sweet. An impressive design that makes me feel like I’m playing a video game.
At range day, I got to go live and throw lead downrange as I rapidly adjusted magnification with the press of a button. I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.
The bank that holds the battery can also act as a backup option for thermals and night vision, possibly even weapon-mounted lights in the future.
This little gadget doesn’t have a set release date just yet, but I think I’mma have to snag one up. Once you try it, rotating a magnification ring just seems lame.
8. Flux Defense P365 Raider
I’m a fan of Flux Defense and the Flux Defense family of brands, including the above-mentioned Scope Switch.
My absolute favorite piece of gear from SHOT 2024 is a unique grip module that turns your Sig P365 into a PDW. The P365 Raider is an evolution of the P320 Raider but in a more compact setup.
This new setup will require a longer barrel, but that barrel sits within a shroud to make a C-grip-style grip useful. Like the original Raider, the new P365 variant will have a spare magazine pouch that sits up front, so a spare is always at hand. The stock or brace now folds to the size and deploys with the press of a button.
This makes your P365 effective easily out to 50 yards with most shooters. The Raider makes your P365 big, but not much bigger than a full-sized handgun.
You’re getting more velocity from the barrel than an MP5K, and you can pack it in an IWB configuration. I’m serious. They make and display a holster that does just that.
The P365 Raider is all kinds of cool, and I can’t wait to get my grubby little mitts on one.
Final Thoughts
If you ever get a chance to visit the media room at SHOT, go on Friday and look at the eyes of the writers and content producers who have been scouring the floor.
They’ll have a faraway stair, sore feet, a notebook full of information, and a mind stressed on deadlines. Yet, every year, we are happy to do it again and again.
What was your favorite pick from SHOT? Let us know below! Need more SHOT Show goodness? We got it over at the Best Guns of SHOT Show 2024 and Best Home Defense & Concealed Carry Guns of SHOT.
3 Leave a Reply
Not sure I'm understanding the idea/reason behind an electronic trigger other than the future capability of allowing more control. Batteries and electronics fail way more than mechanical devices and springs do. There's a reason most of us have iron sights or flipup BUIS in addition to our RMR or other optic. I can understand the "no take up" offering, but this is more of a muscle memory thing. It'll actually mess with you when you switch to another firearm that has take-up. I can see 3 gun drills being interesting if you went from no take up on a rifle to normal take up/release on a handgun. Plus I can't count the number of times I've seen firmware updates brick a device. If it can happen to Apple devices, how much better do you think a trigger from a relatively small, unknown will be? Or what happens when company folds and you're left with a brick? The only reason I can see for an electronic trigger is control... either the kind of control the military drone flyers like when pulling the trigger remotely... or the kind the leftist anti-2A types like where they want to choose who can and can't own a gun. Wondering if MDT got some funding from Gov Newsom's office, LOL. After all it was a CA city that wanted to trial shooting people with robots. I think I'll stick to my mechanical R700 trigger, thank you.
Where are all the primers!!!They need to make primers!!!The gun industry has done nothing but gouge gun owners for the past 3 years. They need to do more to help us defend our 2A rights in the courts.
A $20 clock radio on a $150 safe does not equal $480. It’s a great idea, and I’ll buy one, but not unti the price gets cut in half.